THE ASTOR REVIEW

FIRST AUSTRALIAN SCREENING! Peter Sellers stars in the most hilarious and entertaining of Kubrick’s political comedies. An insane general attempts to launch a nuclear holocaust that leads to farcial arguments between generals and politicians – in The War Room, no less. And although we don’t have a War Room, we do have Melbourne’s largest cinema auditorium and we have an insane plan to present this film, fully restored not only in 4K but through our impressive 4K state of the art projector. At over four times the industry standard resolution, Dr Strangelove in 4K could conceivably and quite literally blow you away. But if it doesn’t, remember, there’s no fighting in the Astor auditorium. TJ

RESTORING DR. STRANGELOVE IN 4K

Through over–printing and damage created at the time of initial release, the negative of Dr. Strangelove was destroyed at the laboratory over forty years ago. Sony Pictures decided to digitally restore the film at Cineric, Inc., a New York laboratory that specialises in film restoration. Chemical stains, scratches and dirt were either printed into, or physically embedded into, all existing film elements. After examination and testing, it was determined the best elements for the restoration were a 35mm fine–grain master positive, a 35mm duplicate negative and a 35mm print. Each element represented a different manufacturing generation from the original camera negative, resulting in wide variations in density and contrast.

It was felt that the only way to restore the film correctly, given the many different elements, their poor condition, and the need to maintain the filmmakers’ aesthetic intentions, was to use a complete 4K digital workflow. The Astor Theatre is proud to present the first Australian screening of this landmark restoration with our new 4K digital projection system. You’ve never seen Dr. Strangelove look this good!

IMDB SYNOPSIS

Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, he believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S. populace, is able to deploy through a back door mechanism a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors, including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, and President Merkin Muffley. Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers and he has shut down communication in and out of Burpelson as a measure to protect this attack. Ripper's executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (on exchange from Britain), who is being held at Burpelson by Ripper, believes he knows the recall codes if he can only get a message to the outside world. Meanwhile at the Pentagon War Room, key persons including Muffley, Turgidson and nuclear scientist and adviser, a former Nazi named Dr. Strangelove, are discussing measures to stop the attack or mitigate its blow-up into an all out nuclear war with the Soviets. Against Turgidson's wishes, Muffley brings Soviet Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky into the War Room, and get his boss, Soviet Premier Dimitri Kisov, on the hot line to inform him of what's going on. The Americans in the War Room are dismayed to learn that the Soviets have a yet as unannounced Doomsday Device to detonate if any of their key targets are hit. As Ripper, Mandrake and those in the War Room try and work the situation to their end goal, Major T.J. King Kong, one of the B-52 bomber pilots, is working on his own agenda of deploying his bomb where ever he can on enemy soil if he can't make it to his intended target.